By Patrick Whalen

The Sox fall again in a tough loss to the Indians in 11 innings. The Sox named Hector Velazquez the starter for game 3 going with the bullpen approach. Velazquez would end up going only 3.1 innings giving up 4 hits and 2 runs before giving way to the bullpen in a tie ball game. The Sox had scored earlier thanks to an Adam Plutko wild pitch that allowed Mookie Betts to score in the 1st and later Devers would drive in Vazquez in the 3rd.

Steven Wright would give up an unearned run after relieving Velazquez in the 4th to make it a 3-2 Indians lead. The Sox would not go quietly though as Mookie Betts would homer to dead center in the top of the 5th to tie the game back up at 3.

That would be the last run that Plutko would give up as he would go 6 innings giving up 5 hits and 3 runs. After the home run, it became a battle of the bullpens. Bobby Poyner came in and threw a shutout 5th inning and then William Cuevas would come on to throw the next 5.1 innings. For the Indians Dan Otero, Jon Edwards, Neil Ramirez, and Adam Cimber would keep the Sox bats quiet for the 7th 8th and 9th innings.

The teams then headed to extras for the second night in a row. The Indians brought in Josh Tomlin in the 10th and he kept the Sox bats quiet again during the 10th and 11th. But he was not able to silence Brock Holt’s incredible air drumming to the beat of the fans drums.

Cuevas was able to keep the Indians off the board in the 10th inning but ran into some trouble in the 11th and gave way to Robby Scott who ended up giving up the walk-off hit to Greg Allen to end the game. Another tough loss for the Sox as they could not set the clubs single-season record for wins for the second night in a row. Again we can’t be too disappointed because of the fact that maybe only one of the guys who pitched last night will probably be on the postseason roster in Steven Wright and yet the Sox only lost by 1 in extras again. Also seeing Mookie Betts getting back in the field and homering was a great sign for his health.

The Sox will now come home to finish up the season with 3 games against the Orioles and 3 against the Yankees. Tonight the Sox are going with Nate Eovaldi who is 5-7 with a 3.98 ERA on the season as he tries to make a push to make the postseason rotation. The Orioles will be sending out Dylan Bundy who has had a season to forget going 8-15 with an ERA of 5.37. Let’s hope tonight is the night the Sox set the franchise record of 106 regular season wins.